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Reply Deep Space: Homeworld Exploration
[REG] A Whole New World (Hvergelmir + Aquarius) [FIN] Goto Page: 1 2 [>] [»|]

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DivineSaturn

PostPosted: Sun May 12, 2013 12:26 am



The Surrounding was still. Quiet. Nothing like Destiny City, which had all manner of ambient noise even on tiny side streets. The transition was abrupt, though Aquarius never really noticed. She always arrived slightly ahead of schedule, the focus required for the transport moving her mind to the Surrounding while her body was still back on Earth. Compared to that, the sudden silence, the shift in atmosphere; these were minor disturbances.

She touched the gate to her outpost out of instinct, her hand brushing over the carvings in the wood as she put her phone away. As ever, it opened with the slightest touch, as if welcoming her home. Usually she found that a bit disturbing. While she knew that this had been her home once, hundreds of years ago, it didn't feel like it. And now, without the civilians that had crowded her during her first return, it always felt eerily quiet.

But for a change, the outpost wasn't the main reason she had come. Instead of heading in, Aquarius led Laney to the edge of the tiled walkway. Her arm was starting to ache now that her adrenaline rush was fading, but she ignored it. There would be time for treatment in a few minutes. Right now, this was more important than anything she could think of.

"Okay," she said softly. "You can open your eyes now."

The view from the walkway was of space, and nothing but space. Above them, below them, in front of them, around them, everywhere was space. With their backs to the outpost, there was nothing but stars and a single path, which slowly changed from mosaic patterns to a stretch of what seemed like pure rainbow, for as far as the eye could see. If they got too close to the edge, a guard rail would pop up, so she had left Laney just shy of that point, where the truth of their location would be fully apparent, and not marred by magical safety gates.

Even though she had seen this view many times already, Aquarius was still fighting back tears. Unsuccessfully, since a few still trickled down her cheeks. She dabbed at her face with the long end of her sash, her eyes not on the view, but on Laney. Unlike her bawling a few minutes earlier, this wasn't a reaction to guilt or fear, but joy and resolution.

Once upon a time, long long ago, Tara Kavanaugh and Laney Sutton made a promise. One day, they swore, they would make it into space. Nothing would stop them from achieving this goal. Even if it seemed unlikely, if not outright impossible, it was treated as a matter of course. Laney might not have remembered that oath, but Tara had never forgotten.

Despite everything that had happened, Aquarius had finally fulfilled her part of that promise.
PostPosted: Sun May 12, 2013 6:16 pm


Hvergelmir opened her eyes onto white noise.

It was like that, anyway, in the way that it felt. Like most human beings, her usual experience of using her eyeballs involved a context that involved various objects cordoning space off into various discrete sectors. For the most part, looking involved ground and sky and scenery, and most of it all quite different. Opening one's eyes and finding nothing but star-speckled space as far as the eye could see was similar to opening your eyes in a pitch-black room. You had the sense that your eyes were open, and yet simultaneously closed -- or, at least, not functioning. She looked upward, where more sky undulated relentlessly, and had to grab onto Tara's arm for support briefly as vertigo overtook her.

Space. True, unbridled space.

"Oh my God," she marveled, her voice faint and awestruck. "Oh my God."

Then, after a few seconds, her face started to relax. Then, gradually, her gasp morphed into a smile, and then, from there, a smile became a quiet, growingly delighted giggle. "Tara," she said, afraid to move but still beaming, "You did it, didn't you? You really, really did it."

Shazari

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DivineSaturn

PostPosted: Sun May 12, 2013 8:18 pm



For a moment, the emotional maelstrom that Aquarius had been in quieted. She watched Laney's expression change from confusion to shock to something giddy and delighted, and it thrilled her to be able to do that. In this moment, being a senshi was worth it. Even though she fought with her other identity, if it was able to bring them both this much happiness, then she could deal with the pain, for a while. As well as the physical pain, which flared when Laney grabbed her arm. Aquarius winced, but even that couldn't dampen her mood for more than a second.

Laney's next words took the wind right out of her sails.

"Oh. I..." She couldn't exactly take credit for this accomplishment, could she? All she'd really done was stay alive long enough to see it happen. Destiny was in control of the rest. And while Aquarius wanted to pretend that didn't matter to her, it did. The bargain was that they would make it to space together, under their own power. Now this felt like a cheat code, something quick and easy rather than being substantial and meaningful.

Not that she could bear to dampen the experience for Laney, not if she could avoid it. "It's less anything I did personally, and more a perk that comes with the job," she explained, her tone falsely nonchalant. "It's... wow, it's really complicated. I don't even know where to begin." Aquarius' own story began with death, so that wasn't her first choice. The fact that she was still missing some key pieces of information didn't help matters either.

"I know you must have all sorts of questions. Maybe if we start by answering some of them, it'll help me figure out a way to explain things." If it had been anyone else, Aquarius probably would have been fine leaving it at 'you're a superhero, your life is now ruined, congrats!' But that wasn't enough for Laney. Mostly because she desperately wished that it wasn't true. Just because her life had been wrecked by this didn't mean it had to be the same for her friend. Not if she had a say in the matter.
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 1:45 pm


Laney, who was naturally inclined to believe Tara could master any situation, took her friend's act of nonchalance at face value. She turned around in a slow circle, taking in her surroundings as she listened. There was Tara, in her own strange costume -- Hvergelmir automatically smiled, seeing her -- and turning a bit farther, she could see tall stone gates, and in the distance beyond them, a single, desolate-looking building. To the other side, space opened up wide again, and around to the mosaic-to-rainbow bridge, and then she was back to where she'd started.

"What is this place?" she asked, the first question that sprang to mind. Then, before Tara could answer, she tacked on, "And what are you? What am I? How did all this happen? Oh! Oh, and what were those things that attacked us?"

Shazari

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DivineSaturn

PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 11:29 pm



Well, she had asked for questions.

"This place is called the Surrounding. It's part of a barrier that helps protect our part of the galaxy." Was it the galaxy, or just the solar system? Aquarius wasn't totally sure how much space the Surrounding covered, since there was no reliable way to measure it. Adding it to her own ever-lengthening list of questions, she waved a hand at the gate behind them. "There are twelve outposts evenly spaced around the Surrounding, where the warriors tasked with protecting it were once stationed. Plus a headquarters, for the one in charge. That one there is called Aquarius Outpost, and it's my..." Legacy? Responsibility? Inheritance? She decided not to finish that sentence, since none of the words that came to mind fit properly.

At least the next question had a set answer, though it wasn't one she would consider simple. "I'm a senshi- like the ones you might see on the news or in the papers. Despite what they'd have you believe, we're not terrorists." Just terrorized, at least in her case. "Basically, a senshi is a warrior attuned to a planet- or a star, or a constellation, or an asteroid, or whatever. Eons ago, they each lived on the space object they were connected with, and were meant to protect that object, and the people on it. But about a thousand years ago, something went wrong. War broke out, and the senshi were all killed. For reasons nobody's really sure about- and if somebody's figured it out, they haven't told me- a bunch of them have been reincarnated on Earth in the present day, where they take up the cause and do... well, basically what we just did. Fight monsters and stuff."

There were other things to fight as well, but Aquarius didn't want to get into them just yet. One step at a time. First she could get Laney used to the idea of being a magical cosmic entity, and then they could talk about all the people who would love to kill her for it.

"I am Sailor Aquarius, of the Zodiac Guard. I'm a little bit different from most of the other senshi- instead of having a planet or a star to protect, it was my job to help defend this barrier, and to keep invading forces out. The term 'Zodiac Guard' refers to the bunch of us who protect the Surrounding. There's thirteen of us- one for each Zodiac sign, two for Gemini- plus our princess, her consort, and her handmaidens." Many if whom were missing or dead right then. Aquarius didn't really associate herself with the Zodiac Guard anymore, since bad things tended to befall those who did, but she owed it to Laney to give a thorough explanation. Which included a mention of their current status. "We're not exactly organized right now, though, and I just kind of do my own thing." Because that had worked so well for her in the past.

Moving on.

"I'm not totally sure what you are, but I'd guess you're a knight. Knights are a little different- instead of being attuned to hunks or rock or balls of gas, they protected places on planets called wonders. Which are apparently cities, fortresses, those sorts of things." All of Aquarius' knight information was hearsay and some of it was probably wrong, but she plowed on anyway. "All senshi are reincarnated from a thousand years ago, but only some knights are. Others have passed it along in their bloodline, apparently- so if you're a knight, then either you were one a thousand years ago, or your great-great-lots-of-great grandmother was one. Or something." She shrugged apologetically. "Knights started awakening more recently than senshi did, so I don't know as much about them. But you should be able to know your name and what planet you're from, if you think about it. It's really weird, but you'll know, instinctively, who you are." Not that knowledge guaranteed comprehension. That would have been useful.

Aquarius opened her mouth to answer the next question, and realized she couldn't remember what it was. She'd already done a bunch of talking, and it was tough keeping everything straight. Adding her fatigue from the battle into the equation meant that she was lucky to have remembered as many questions as she did. If they were going to keep this up- and it was clear that they would have to- it would be better to do so someplace where they could relax and get patched up a bit.

"Let's head inside," she suggested, taking a few steps towards the open gate. "We can walk and talk, and then we can sit and talk. Remind me what the next question was? We covered 'where' and 'who.' Or was it 'what' next?" There were too many whats to keep track of when you were talking about wars that transcended the boundaries of space and time.
PostPosted: Mon May 20, 2013 1:21 pm


"Reincarnated," Hvergelmir echoed her softly. "Inherited. But why here, I wonder? Well, I mean, not here here, but, you know -- why Destiny City? If these things happen for a reason -- if people are born time and again with magic powers, and we're meant to be protecting things -- if this watchtower's what you're supposed to be protecting, or my wellspring, which is -- hmm. Where is it? That's a question, I suppose. Anyway, it's certainly not in DC. So -- if everything that's happening is happening because there's something we still have to do, something we didn't do way back when -- what's so special about Destiny City?"

Other things stuck in her head. Something went wrong. War broke out. She decided not to voice her questions on that, but they rattled around in her head nonetheless. What went wrong? Why were there warriors before a war had ever broken out? And what kind of warriors were they if monsters managed to kill them all, just like that?

Instead, she focused on following Aquarius to her outpost.

With concentration and attention, Laney found that she could put her mind to facts about herself she didn't understand, and some of them would come to her as though she'd always known them and had simply never given them much thought. It was like discovering that one had a sixth toe on each foot and had simply never noticed it.

"I'm a knight in training. The Page of Hvergelmir," she explained, the odd name rolling surprisingly comfortably off of her tongue. "But it's not on any planet. It's just -- " She shrugged. "Away. Out there, I don't know." Her voice fell to a faraway whisper, the answers still only vaguely within her reach, still comprehensible in ways that were, themselves, incomprehensible. "Somewhere small. Small and special."

The great old sandstone building rose up before them, more and more imposing with their approach. Tara, she realized, had once lived here, a long time ago. Maybe not her Tara, but then, by the same token, maybe it was her Tara. Maybe something essentially made a person themselves across reincarnated lifetimes.

Either way, something that was a part of Tara now had lived here once. All Hvergelmir could think, looking up at the beautiful, dry structure, was that it looked terribly lonely. It was odd that thinking of her own charge, the one she'd described as small and special, didn't make her feel the same way. But perhaps that was the point.

"It's a shame old Sailor Aquarius didn't think to leave you a diary or anything, like the Book of Mazarbul. Or maybe just one of those IKEA picture manuals.

"How many of us are there? Senshi and knights."

Shazari

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DivineSaturn

PostPosted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 3:36 pm



Of course, Laney had to ask the tough questions. The ones Aquarius didn't have the answers to, though not for lack of thinking about them. How many times had she asked those very things? Why her? Why here? Why now?

"I don't know," she said honestly. "Would love to know, but don't." So much for this being an informational session. Right now, Aquarius was only sure of how much she didn't know. Like how it was apparently possible for knights- or pages, or whatever- to not belong to planets. "Out there? Out there where?"

Laney wasn't a Chronos Page, was she? That was a spectacularly horrifying thought. While all senshi and knights faced awful things, she had long since come to the conclusion that the worst ones were saved for Zodiacs. Aquarius had been trying to keep to the lighter side of being a magical superhero, but if Laney had that destiny, there was no way she could focus on the bright side for long.

Then again, Laney had also said that her wonder was somewhere else. So it seemed like she was safe from that particular horror.

The mention of a diary made Aquarius laugh somewhat maniacally. "Well, he wasn't rude enough to leave me with nothing. Though I would have preferred an IKEA manual. At least then I would be able to put something together. As it is, well... you'll see in a minute." It would be rude of her to spoil the surprise, as it were.

How many senshi were there, anyway? "Tons," she answered listlessly. "Dozens, at least. Probably more. And new ones awakening all the time, for reasons I don't pretend to understand. More of us wake up, so they recruit more, which makes even more of us wake up. And so on. The balance never changes. Or at least, it hasn't yet, and from what I've seen, sheer numbers won't be enough to end this thing. There needs to be more, but..." She shrugged. "If I knew what was needed, we wouldn't still be fighting."
PostPosted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 12:25 pm


Just as she had before, Hvergelmir found she could answer some of Tara's questions just by concentrating hard enough, drawing out pieces of knowledge that were either innate to her, or that were inscribed upon her memory from a life before this one, one she couldn't quite recall in full yet.

She raised a hand and pointed outward again, into the unfamiliar sky of space as viewed from Aquarius Outpost, far from Earth. Her hand was indicating a thickly clustered section of the ribbon that was the Milky Way, a point dense with stars and far-off mysteries. "At the center," she said, wishing she knew more. "Beyond where most travelers would turn back. Somewhere that way. Sorry," she said with visible chagrin, "I don't really know what that means."

It was disconcerting, knowing things without really grasping what it was you knew. It was like being handed something while blindfolded -- knowing that it was hard or smooth or heavy or glossy, without being able to say whether it was a television or a microwave or a humidifier or god-only-knew-what. A dead body without a cause of death was about as useful and as comforting.

And even Tara didn't know much. Tara, whom Laney usually looked to for answers to these things, who knew a billion scientific facts and who, when confronted with one of life's as-yet-unsolved mysteries, was always the one person who had a working theory and who didn't give up searching. Even she had come up empty-handed and was flying blind.

"It's kind of scary, isn't it?" she voiced her thoughts aloud. "Tell me I'm not wrong to be freaking out. I'm not wrong, right?" Her hands were shaking.

DivineSaturn

Shazari

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DivineSaturn

PostPosted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 10:00 pm



The center. That couldn't possibly be part of the Surrounding, the Outer Reaches that Chronos ruled over. And so Laney was safe, or safer at least than Aquarius herself would ever be. That was the only comfort she could draw from this situation. But she was still a page, and therefore still involved. Still in danger. And scared, and it was all her fault-

No. There would be plenty of time for guilt later. Now, she had a duty as a senshi, and more importantly, as a friend.

"It's absolutely okay to freak out. It's probably the best reaction to have, actually. I didn't, not at first, but then once I really realized what was going on I totally did." She took a deep breath, torn between protecting Laney from the scary things and giving her the knowledge she needed to survive. "I still freak out sometimes," she finally admitted. Really, it was more than just sometimes, but she didn't want to overdo it. "It doesn't become less scary as time goes on. You just learn to handle it better."

That was an outright lie, but maybe for Laney, it didn't have to be.

"This is big stuff. Like literally, fate of the universe, paradigm-altering stuff. That's scary by default. But the universe is a big thing, and it doesn't change easy. One action won't tip the balance. So being a hero isn't a temp gig, but that also means that most mistakes won't bring around the end of the world either." Unless you died, but that was definitely not the sort of thing to bring up in orientation. "And hey- if you were given this power, that means that you have something important, something essential. So don't worry, because you already have everything you need, even if you don't know you have it."

Only about half of this was the absolute truth. How much of the rest was invented for Laney's benefit? And how much was for her own, the pep talk she didn't even know she needed?

Shazari
PostPosted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 7:59 pm


Tara always, always knew what to say.

The world was a big and scary place. Tonight, she'd fought monsters -- monsters intent on killing her! -- and she and Tara had overcome them together. The prospect of not being able to now proceed through the rest of her life attached to Tara's hip was a terrifying one; there'd be times when there would be monsters to be fought, and Laney wouldn't be able to count on her friend's reassuring presence at her side to bear her emotionally through it -- but she would have to muddle through it somehow. People were looking to her to do the right thing.

Tara thought it would be hard to screw that up. Laney knew herself, knew how bad she was at accomplishing anything -- anything of merit -- on her own. She wasn't so sure.

Without warning, Hvergelmir launched herself into Aquarius's arms and clung to her desperately. "Thank God you're here," she mumbled into Aquarius's shoulder.

DivineSaturn

Shazari

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DivineSaturn

PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 9:33 pm



At first, Aquarius froze. Then, slowly, she began patting Laney's back. This was the part where she was supposed to be reassuring, where she should insist that everything was going to be. But as badly as she wanted that to be the case, she couldn't promise it. If she wasn't strong enough to keep Laney from needing to be awakened, how could she be sure she was strong enough to protect her from the monsters, human and otherwise, who would now target her?

The doubt was overwhelming. The guilt was even worse, threatening to engulf her. She couldn't pretend that everything was fine when this was probably all her fault. And Aquarius' presence wouldn't do much to bolster anyone's security. If anything, it was a threat. There were probably people who would want to hurt Laney just because of her association with one of the Zodiac Guard. Knowing that, how could she respond?

Nobody would ever really be able to understand Aquarius and her failures. But if anyone was able to forgive them, it would probably be Laney.

"I'm so sorry." Overcome with remorse, she clutched at her best friend, closing her eyes to shut out the image of the knight who now stood there. Her voice wavered, then cracked, as she spoke. "I never wanted you to have to worry about any of this. It's scary, and hard, and most of the time it doesn't make any sense and you don't know what you're doing. But that doesn't excuse it. If I was better, stronger, then maybe-"

Maybe none of this would have happened. The thought was there, but Aquarius couldn't finish saying it. Her resolve to have Laney know the truth gave way to the fear that this would be too grave an offense to allow pardon.

Shazari
PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 7:30 am


It wasn't always easy for Laney to get out of her own head. She spent a lot of time there, mired in her own emotions -- and while outwardly, she'd always been the sort of person to bend over backwards to gain other people's approval, that was, in its way, for her own benefit too. She took whatever action would gain the approval of the person standing in front of her, pushing off the consequences, for the sake of assuaging her immediate peace of mind. She was not, on the whole, noble or heroic by nature. She was obsessed with her own feelings, and willing to forgive herself for any self-serving decision she made because she justified it by blowing her own emotions out of proportion as though they were the end-all, be-all, measure of the world.

And it hadn't made her any happier. She knew that -- she was struggling with it in her civilian life, trying to figure out how to make sense of her superficial relationship with her parents. She'd woken from her coma desperate to feel free, not to waste her life living for someone else's wishes.

But she hadn't considered that it hadn't made Tara any happier either, her self-servingness. She hadn't considered how cruel it was to put every emotional burden on her friends, to take advantage of them as she had. Poor Tara -- her Tara, who'd stuck by her even when she was half-dead for a year -- had been trying to fight a battle alone. She'd been trying to protect Laney from it... because that's what Laney had always expected her to do.

Tara had been so convinced that it was her role to sacrifice her own well-being for Laney's, she'd spent however long until now being a shield for her even when Laney didn't know she was doing it. She was so convinced that this was her responsibility that here she was apologizing for failing.

Laney had not been a good friend at all.

"That was never your job," she mumbled into Aquarius's shoulder. "Never."

DivineSaturn

Shazari

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DivineSaturn

PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 8:33 pm



That was reassuring, but it wasn't necessarily true. If it wasn't Aquarius' job to keep people safe from, and unaware of, the danger in Destiny City, then what was she supposed to be doing? What was the point of putting herself out there, if other people would just get sucked into the whole mess sooner or later?

It was true that guilt was a big motivator, but it wasn't the only one. Just as pressing was Aquarius' desire to avoid further loss. She had already lost Eon, and Aries, and the others. She had nearly lost Laney once before, and the fact that she hadn't was nothing short of a miracle. Aquarius couldn't accept that Laney's second chance might be wasted on some ridiculous war, and she couldn't accept that she might be powerless to stop it.

So no, it was her job to keep Laney, and the others close to her, safe. If it wasn't a mantle bestowed upon her along with the powers, it was one she took up willingly. If she had to do awful things, she needed a more concrete cause than 'bad things are going on.' Some might claim individual lives to be unimportant in comparison to the fate of the universe. Aquarius did not. And if Laney wasn't angry with her, that was a cause she could continue to work towards.

"Okay." It wasn't agreement, but rather an affirmation. Things would be okay. She would make sure of it. That knowledge gave her confidence, and that allowed her to slowly pull away from Laney. Almost. Her hand still wrapped around Laney's wrist, and she began leading again. "Here, let's go inside. I want to show you what I've been working on." Not the Outpost itself; Aquarius still felt a disconnect between herself and the remains of a life long-gone. Viewing it from the outside, putting it under a microscope, made it more manageable. This was a grand research project, nothing more.

Like the gate, the door to the Outpost opened with a touch of the hand. Aquarius spared a moment to wish she had cleaned up the last time she was there- papers and books were still everywhere, along with the remaining supplies her 'guests' had used- then let the thought go. If they had been able to survive a monster attack, a little mess was nothing they couldn't handle.

Shazari
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 7:15 pm


Hvergelmir followed her friend inside, this time already subconsciously gearing herself up for more wondrousness. She continued to have failed to recognize Aquarius's injury, but at least Aquarius was holding onto her, and not vice versa, so she probably wasn't worsening it, either.

Whatever she expected, she was impressed even so. Around them was a receiving room of some kind, decorated lightly for guests, and it showed equal signs of disarray and attempts to set it to order. The floors were unevenly clean, clear in sections and with dust near the outer bounds of the room in a way that suggested either heavy, recent foot traffic or else an abortive cleaning attempt, equally recent. Where the floor had been wiped clear, however, was a glimmering tile mosaic floor of such surpassing artistry that the blue water depicted in the mosaic nearly seemed to flow underfoot. Lonely, one-person outpost this may have been, but it was obviously also a place in which the architect had taken the utmost pride. "Tara," she marveled, turning a half-circle to admire the whole of the room, "this place is . . . amazing. Seriously. Just . . . wow. Your Bat Cave is phenomenal."

Hvergelmir hadn't seen the half of it yet -- but she had no way of knowing that. To her, the antechamber alone was worth the entrance fee.

DivineSaturn

Shazari

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DivineSaturn

PostPosted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 12:04 pm



Aquarius barely paused as they made their way through the hall. She had spent enough time there that it lost much of its charm. When the civilians were stranded, it had served as the record office, and most of the papers left there were no longer relevant, lists of people, tasks needing done, and so on. If she stayed and really looked, the way she had never had the time or desire to do before, maybe she would appreciate it the way that Laney did.

Instead, she continued walking. Off to one side was a simple staircase, which she began to lead Laney up. "All of this came with the title," she said, as if that would explain her rush. "And when I found it, the timing was... inconvenient." She couldn't even claim to be the first person to set foot on her Outpost in a thousand years. That honor probably went to one of her uninvited guests. "So yeah, it's amazing and all, but there's more I don't know about it than there is stuff I can explain."

They emerged at the top of the stairs, and Aquarius hesitated for a moment. They were near the kitchen, which contained the few first-aid supplies that had been brought in to help the civilians. Her arm still throbbed and stung from the battle, and it would be nice to treat it. But she doubted that there was anything in the basic kit to help with burns from ice or acid, and all-purpose ointment probably wouldn't do much. In any event, while medical attention would be helpful, there was something else she needed even more.

So instead, she turned to the right, picking up speed. She didn't stop to let Laney admire the balcony, or the bedrooms off to the side. The most they could see of the atrium below was in fleeting glimpses- a snatch of tile, a spot of painted sky, the reflected light off the water in the fountain- before they arrived at an archway on the other side. And then, with no introduction, went right inside.

It was clear from the beginning that Aquarius Outpost was home to a number of books. No wall was without floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, all of them completely stuffed. More books were haphazardly laid on tables and chairs, and still more were stacked in piles on the floor. The library took that up to eleven. There was no visible surface that didn't have a book- or several- on it. Chairs had books spilling out of them. Stacks of books were everywhere; many had fallen over, creating rivers of texts that ran between the shelves in the center of the room. Though those were not floor-to-ceiling, they made up for it by having more books piled on top. Loose documents were scattered everywhere, including a number of pieces of chart paper that were fastened to the tops of the shelves, covered with what looked like scribbles, or symbols.

Ever since she had started her translation efforts, Aquarius had had a sort of love-hate relationship with the ancient languages she was working with. Now she traced one of the characters on the nearest sheet with her fingers, wincing a little as even the light pressure on her damaged skin triggered a fresh stream of pain. She retracted her hand quickly, using it instead to gesture at the paper, Vanna White-style. "This is what I've been working on. There's so much information here, it stands to reason that some of it must be useful. Except it's all written in dead languages, and I haven't been able to translate it. But I'm cataloging the characters that I find, organizing them into alphabets, comparing them to Earth languages... I know that there's something in here, something we can use to fix things."

Which was a long-winded way of saying "look, I can be useful too!" Aquarius didn't want to have Laney's praise just for getting a cool fort in her superhero benefits package. After everything she had done- and more importantly, everything she hadn't- she desperately needed some validation. She needed to know that everything she had been through was worth more than just the price of admission.

Shazari
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Deep Space: Homeworld Exploration

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